1. Field of Invention
The disclosure generally relates to the field of improving user experience with books in a digital environment, and more specifically to the generation of new types of metadata that provides a user with more intuitive and meaningful information about a book.
2. Background Information
Existing systems store metadata relating to media objects (e.g., books, songs, images, etc.) and present these data to users in order to convey information about the individual media objects. For example, GOOGLE EBOOKSTORE™ includes metadata tags for books associating each one with genres, as well as indicating included features (such as flowing text), to assist a user in determining if the book is of interest, and if it is appropriate for the user device(s) on which the user wishes to read the electronic book.
Such metadata is highly valuable in assisting users to determine whether to download a particular media object. However, such metadata is assigned manually by vendors, publishers and authors (collectively suppliers) of media objects. Suppliers and users alike would benefit from a system for automatically generating metadata based on characteristics of the media object, existing metadata, and usage statistics. This would enable a far richer tapestry of information to be supplied through metadata without unduly burdening suppliers. The potential benefits for users of such a system are two-fold. Firstly, the users will be provided with more detailed information about the media object when determining whether it is of interest to them. Secondly, the reduced administrative burden on suppliers with regards to metadata creation should result in reduced costs for media objects.